


The one with the stormy night

by akachankami



Series: Shippers Anonymous [5]
Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 20:04:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11698959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akachankami/pseuds/akachankami
Summary: Prompt:It was a dark and stormy night and Elsie was due back from the village an hour ago. Charles is pacing from his pantry to the back door every five minutes. He finally decides to venture out into the storm to search for her. Returning, two hours and several inches of rain later, he sees her alighting from Isobel Crawley's motorcar – dry, rosy cheeked and laughing.





	The one with the stormy night

Elsie is not alone in the car. Charles cannot see who's on board from that angle but it is definitely a man, someone bold enough to flirt with the housekeeper and kiss her hand before letting her slip inside. His outraged look and scowl meet her just inside the door.

"Mr Carson," she greets him walking past him down the steps. "Where have you been with this weather?" she asks casually after taking in his drenched clothes and the pool of water gathering at his feet.

"Where have  _I_  been? Where have  _you_  been!?" he thunders without thinking at how ridiculous a question that is.

Elsie doesn't answer, she's already down the hall and in her sitting room looking for towels and when she turns around he's standing at her door, dripping all over the floor.

"You better take those off before you catch your death," she says draping a towel over his head. She's already taken off her coat and she starts unbuttoning his when his brain catches up.

"Mrs Hughes!"

She looks up at him and for a second they're both silently staring at each other terrified.

"I'll make some tea, you take those off and dry yourself," she orders.

She's back less than ten mintues later with two cups and a smile. She finds him still completely dressed in wet clothes near the stove and her smile turns into pursed lips: "You really fancy pneumonia Mr Carson." But he's stressing the towel and looks positively defeated, so she leaves the cups on her desk and sits with him by the stove.

"I went looking for you thinking you under the weather and you were…" he mutters.

"I was at Mrs Crawley's instructing the new maid," she finishes. But she sees his disbelief and adds: "She was entertaining Doctor Clarckson and he offered to safely deliver me home when we left."

"Dr Clarckson?!" he bursts "Was Dr Clarckson kissing your hand?!"

Elsie giggles and starts poking at his jacket buttons again. "He's a real gentleman, he let me sit in the back of the car with him so I wouldn't get drenched."

"A  _real_  gentleman wouldn't do that," he counters frowning.

'Well, that depends on your definition of _gentleman_ then."

She's unbuttoned his jacket and his vest already and starts loosening his tie before relentlessly freeing his shirt's buttons too. She never looks up at him and he's grateful for that because he's compeltely paralized and must be looking like a fool. At least he hopes the fire will mask the blush he feels creeping up his neck and cheek, to the tip of his ears.

But when she's done with the buttons they both don't know what to do and it's Elsie suggesting he helps himself out of his clothes while she turns to pour tea in the cups. They sip tea silently for awhile, Charles covering his embarrassement under a blanket from her sitting room and Elsie lost in thought untill they forget about his state of undress and it's like any other night by the fire having tea in companionable silence.

He asks about the new maid, she talks about the fine china at Crawley's House, he says he's reading a new book, she asks about the one she recommended, he touches her hand when he takes the cup from her and she tells him Dr Clarckson wouldn't have come looking for her under the weather… He doesn't know what to say and she smiles, thanks him and he thinks maybe she sees him as a gentleman too now, whatever that means. They finally fall asleep on the settee by the stove in her sitting room.

He wakes up the morning after, startled by a sneeze. Elsie, sniffs, dries her nose and curls up around him still half asleep. He ponders briefly what a gentleman would do but a sneeze takes him too by surprise and they're _both_ startled awake facing each other through sleepy eyes. Elsie giggles first, he follows and they both sneeze soon after, like a lady and a gentleman would.


End file.
